The UW Team is using Rapid Recycling Prototyping to practice the best methods of integrating systems and achieve optimal efficiency.

This fall was the spark to clean energy that the Midwest needed to jolt innovation towards a more sustainable future. Through increased access to resources and opportunities along with a passionate group of individuals, Spark Clean Energy is up and running at UW-Madison and eager to begin making an impact!

One competition team looking to contribute to this community is Solar Decathlon, UW. The Decathlon team will be designing and building a residential home that sources its energy purely from sunlight. With the application for the 2019 DOE Solar Decathlon Competition due next fall, members are working hard to lay out the project timeline and complete content submission while coordinating the most efficient technologies and applying practical solutions.

In an effort to address as many issues as possible, the team is constantly prototyping energy consumption and production solutions using reused materials while rethinking what’s possible with current technology. The team's first designs use a small scale house and focus on a high level consideration of energy systems, architecture, and construction. By working to be competitive in each aspect of the competition, the work done each semester will refine and improve the UW Team house with hopes to win the competition.

With this team starting to gain momentum, the Spark Clean Energy hub at UW-Madison is heading in the right direction with the goal of growing the number of teams working on sustainability projects. Through the Spark Clean Energy network, anyone willing to develop ideas and present solutions to display within the house will advance the project while allowing for them to pursue their ideas in separate ventures. Look forward to updates with the projects being done and what is yet to come!

About the Author: ​Bill is a fifth year engineering student at the University of Wisconsin - Madison enrolled in the Mechanical Engineering program pursuing certificates in both Energy Sustainability and Thermal Energy. With climate change becoming increasingly relevant, Bill is passionate about supporting the global community in advancing sustainable practices and fighting for the planet. He believes there is no better place to contribute to this sort of positive change than in the clean, renewable energy field and energy efficiency!

​Which one do you think is environmentally friendlier – paper cup or polyfoam cup?

The answer – it depends.

Going back to the question, how does one define “environmentally friendly”? All of us have someshared background but vastly different experiences and expertise. The experience we bring to thetable also brings a certain level of bias to our approach on solving complex problems. An environmentalist would have a different viewpoint from an engineer. Looking at the manufacturingdata of the two types of cups - the air emissions, such as chlorine, chlorine dioxide, sulphides arehigher for manufacturing a paper cup compared to a plastic cup. But if you consider the amount ofcooling water required, the plastic cup uses higher quantities than the paper cup.

Consider a hypothetical scenario - we want to choose an environmentally friendly option for cups ata social event. If our priority is better air quality, we go for the plastic cups as it produces lesser airemissions. But, we cannot extrapolate the same solution to another location. Maybe the otherlocation has a severe shortage of water and manufacturing the plastic cups exacerbates thesituation. This is based on the assumption that the cups are manufactured in the same area as ourfictitious party.

Let’s equate “environmentally friendly” to the ease of recyclability. Scientific studies show recyclinga paper cup is easier than a polyfoam cup, which raises the question - how do we avoid a parochialview on environmental safety? One approach of taking various factors into account is called LifeCycle Analysis (LCA).

Life cycle analysis studies environmental impact considering the overall cradle to grave story of a system, that is, production, use, disposal and everything in between. Having a system wide LCA approach is important as it helps us channel our focus for maximum effect. Let us take the example of cars. From studies, it can be observed that the most amount of carbon-dioxide produced by cars is during its “use-phase”, that is, over the total car use period. Equating environmental impact to green house gas emissions, we can reduce the impact of cars by focusing on vehicular mileage. We may come up with a breakthrough in technology for car manufacturing which reduces the amount ofcarbon-dioxide produced during the manufacturing phase, but the overall carbon-dioxide reductionwould still be low. Now, if we have a breakthrough in the efficiency of a car engine or come up withdesign changes that reduce drag on the car without additional manufacturing processes, we coulddrastically reduce the amount of fuel required to run the car over its lifetime (fuel consumptioncould plummet significantly).

We spend a lot of time trying to find a solution but we do not analyze the problem thoroughly. Oncewe define our problem and determine the scope of our solution, we can use Life Cycle Analysis tostrategically target product life cycle stages to best address the issue.

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​About the Author: ​With a mechanical and energy engineering background, Praneet's research is on renewable energy project development and life cycle analysis. As an international student at Purdue, his interdisciplinary masters program in Ecological Sciences and Engineering provided him with a wonderful opportunity to interact with people from different cultures and disciplines. Praneet tends to use this interdisciplinary approach towards finding solutions in his research as well.

The ongoing Spark Clean Energy Fellowship has given me a great perspective on both the business and technology fundamentals imperative to an energy startup’s success. The weekly video lectures on various energy topics by esteemed MIT faculty, combined with the guidance and support of our Fellowship coordinator - Hannah Bouscher, have resulted in an evolved understanding of what it takes to succeed in the energy space.

One of the most interesting topics I have come across during this Fellowship is the promise of Solar Microgrids in the electrification of rural areas. Unlike the standard solar pv rooftops, solar microgrids give the added advantage of being able to island from the grid. The microgrid’s software senses the next disruption in supply from the grid, and responds by cutting itself off from the grid. Therefore, it offers people the option of receiving clean electricity without the added inconvenience of installing a PV panel on their roof.

Such “community” solar microgrids for a city are typically designed around hospitals, banks, etc - essentially guaranteeing a power supply in the case of an emergency for various needs like charging mobile phones, heat and shelter. For a rural village with much lower energy needs and a disruptive power supply from the grid, a community solar microgrid offers residents the option of operating completely independent from the grid. I came across an excellent implementation of this concept through the weekly energy chats hosted by the Energy Club, where I came into contact with the leader of the Georgia Tech chapter of the IEEE PES Solar Microgrid Project for rural electrification in Haiti. His presentation on his team’s work in installing a solar microgrid in a remote area in Haiti gave me hope that such a concept could be a definite success in underdeveloped regions around the world whose people wish to increase their energy security.

The Spark Fellowship encourages its fellows to host on-campus events designed to promote energy awareness, and develop viewpoints on upcoming clean energy technologies. I have been fortunate enough to have another 2016 Fellow - Francesca Gencarella - at my university so we’ve decided to collaborate on hosting these events, and we’ll be hosting our next one at the Startup Fair by the Energy Club, a club where I currently serve on the Operations Committee. Along with the Solar Microgrid, we will be talking to the students at the event about the Solar Decathlon team at Georgia Tech, where Francesca is actively involved, as well as on possible research opportunities in energy at Georgia Tech.

Though this Fellowship ends in another three weeks, I hope to continue working in the energy space for years to come, and combine my passions for clean energy technology with my aptitude for data analytics to accelerate the world’s transition to clean energy. ​

About the Author:

Nikhil Dhawan is a mechanical engineering senior at Georgia Tech and is also pursuing a minor in Energy Systems. He serves a key role in the operations team of the Energy Club at Georgia Tech, which involves securing funding from organizations for club events. Throughout his academic journey at Georgia Tech, he has performed undergraduate research in Perovskite Solar Cells, designed a net-energy positive solar-powered home, and is currently engaged in simulations of Hybrid Electric Vehicle Powertrains to further his desire of a cleaner transportation system.